This is my first tax year as a day trader, and I was wondering what some of the veteran day traders have found to be the best tax software? More specifically, have you found that products like Turbo Tax and H&R Block cover the unique tax situation that day traders have to deal with, when it comes to filing Schedule C, D, and the Market to Market concept?
Let me cut this one short for you. Gainskeeper - Some people like them...I had a nightmare time with them importing records from Ameritrade...but that was years ago. I won't use them anymore. GTT(TradeLog) - Got this one recently and like it a lot...seems to work fine. Many many traders - Some trade tracking system they built in Excel themselves and swear by. If you're not good at Excel it might be harder for you to do this. My advice...if you make money buy the software and make sure the imports are correct each day with your trades. If you don't make money....who cares, you'll have nothing but losses anyway! Good luck...it's a difficult subject. One word of advice I have is this though....KNOW WHAT YOU WERE HOLDING OVER NEW YEARS. Any program works by year and you need to know what stocks, options, etc. you were holding over the new year, when you purchased the shares, how much they cost you, etc. This is very important and a program like TradeLog won't even work until you build last year's holdings in and do a rollover into this year. Good luck...it's a shady path...but you have to deal with it.
First off - I use Trade Log. It is a good program and they keep up with the changes the more commonly used brokers make to the statements. Makes importing fast and accurate. Handles wash sales very nicely. I'd suggest you search ET for "mark to market". In general, if you did not state that you intended to use MTM in 2006 when you filed your 2005 return you cannot use it. You can qualify as a "trader in stocks/commodities" anytime during the year. The IRS does not recognize the term "day trader". Try http://www.greencompany.com/EducationCenter/ There are other sites with similar info. Jack
Thanks for sharing your experience. I just talked to guys at TradeLog today. They seem to have the best tax software for Day Traders. Do you recommend filing for the MTM status?